12 MAY QUESTION BANK

Answer questions in NOT MORE than 200 words each. Content of the answer is more important than its length.

Links are provided for reference. You can also use the Internet fruitfully to further enhance and strengthen your answers.

GS III : AGRICULTURE

1.Many states in India have reported occurrence of drought on account of deficient rainfall. This has resulted in a severe water crisis and has affected the farmers the most. What steps need to be taken to revitalize the agriculture sector and improve the conditions of the farmers on a sustained basis, in this regard?

·Bundelkhand, known for the dacoits of Chambal and the Rani of Jhansi, the arid region, occupying districts of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, has experienced drastic variation in climate in recent times.

·It faced a drought from 2003 to 2010, then floods in 2011, delayed monsoons in 2012 and 2013, and drought again since 2014.

·India is uniquely vulnerable to rising temperatures — it ranks in the top 20 in the Climate Change Vulnerability Index.

·Our average surface temperature, over the past four decades, has risen by 0.3° Celsius, accompanied by a rising incidence of floods, droughts and cyclones.

·Mitigating this by increasing chemical fertilizer usage could impact long-term soil fertility, leaving the soil open to greater erosion and desertification.

·Meanwhile, migration patterns, farmer suicides and stagnating rural incomes, along with increasingly ad hoc land acquisition in the name of public goods, have politicised the idea of climate mitigation.

Marginal farmers most affected:

·With the majority of all landholdings in India measuring less than a hectare, marginal farmers face a steep decline in household income and a concomitant rise in household poverty through exacerbated droughts.

·Farmers tried everything to adapt — growing a mix of dry crops during the kharif season, while interspersing the winter rabi wheat with cash crops like chickpea and mustard. They invested heavily in borewells, tractors, threshers and seeds and fertilizers through formal and informal credit.

·Our dependency on rain continues to amplify — rain-fed agriculture is practised in the majority of our total cropped area supporting a significant proportion of the national food basket (55 per cent of rice, 90 per cent of pulses, 91 per cent of all coarse grain).

·Our regional crop patterns assume a specific range of weather variability, failing to cope with the recent high periods of heavy rainfall with long dry intervals.

·In 2013, large crops of wheat, gram, lentils and mustard, weeks away from harvesting, were destroyed in untimely rains.

·India’s flood-affected area has doubled since Independence, despite generous state spending on flood protection schemes.

·Climate change will impact the entire food production chain, affecting our food security. Livestock production, often considered to be a substitute to farming for marginal farmers, would face reduced fodder supplies given a decline in crop area or production. With India’s population rising, demand for diversified crops will be hard to square with diminishing yields.

Some policy prescriptions

1.Our low agricultural productivity remains a key constraint. According to the Swaminathan Committee on Farmers (2006), for rice, we produce 2,929 kg per hectare, while China produces twice as much. For other staples, we remain woeful, producing 913 kg of groundnut per hectare, while Indonesia produces nearly half as much more.

As suggested by the National Commission on Farmers, a rural spending plan, focussed on investments in agriculture infrastructure, particularly in irrigation, rainwater harvesting and a national network of soil-testing laboratories is needed.

2.Simplewater harvesting and conservation measures (micro-irrigation, watershed management and insurance coverage) can reduce the majority of the potential loss due to drought (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2013).

3.Drought strategies should be extended to the village level — for example, each village should have a village pond, created under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.

4.As suggested often by the National Commission on Farmers, conservation farming and dryland agriculture should be promoted.

5.Each village should be provided timely rainfall forecasts along with weather-based forewarnings regarding crop pests and epidemics in various seasons.

6.Afforestation, in a biodiverse manner, should be encouraged to help modify regional climates and prevent soil erosion.

7.Our agricultural research programmes need to be retooled towards dryland research — it has been argued that adoption of drought-tolerant breeds can help reduce production risks by nearly a third, while offering attractive returns to breeders.

8.Changing planting dates could have a significant impact; research highlights that planting wheat earlier than usual can help reduce climate change-induced damage.

9.Zero tillage and laser-based levelling can also help conserve water and land resources. Crop planning can be conducted as per the climatic zones of different regions, while utilising better genotypes for rain-fed conditions.

10.We should focus on expanding our formal credit system to reach all marginal farmers.Insurance coverage should be expanded to all crops while reducing the rate of interest to nominal levels, with government support and an expanded Rural Insurance Development Fund.

12.The Centre and States should launch an integrated crop, livestock and family health insurance package while instituting an Agriculture Credit Risk Fund to provide relief in the aftermath of successive natural disasters.

Agricultural investments in food crops, along with systemic support for irrigation, infrastructure and rural institutions can help move India beyond climate change-induced food insecurity, strengthening our stressed food production systems.Through adaptation and mitigation measures, we can overcome this Hobbesian crisis.